Brisbane restaurants prepare to open, while larger venues claim they’ve been ‘overlooked’
Restaurants, cafes and bars across Brisbane are preparing to reopen as Queensland’s coronavirus restrictions ease this weekend. But some venues say they have no choice but to keep their doors closed. LIST: Where you can dine in this weekend
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SMALL restaurants are relishing a return to dine-in service this weekend and are being inundated with booking requests as they come up with innovative ways to operate.
But larger venues still feel “overlooked”, with customer limits too miserly to justify overheads.
Riverside dining hot spot Alchemy announced a return to service this weekend, with stage one of the Queensland Government’s coronavirus recovery plan allowing 10 patrons to dine-in at restaurants.
Co-owner Angelica Jolly said the restaurant was swarmed with bookings within “minutes” and restaurant staff rallied just as quickly.
“They’re jumping out of their skin to be back,” Mrs Jolly said.
Alchemy will host two 10-person dinner sittings six nights a week, a change that Mrs Jolly said, “will make a world of difference”.
“Even for morale, it makes us hopeful that this is coming to an end.”
West End Breakfast favourite, the Morning After, announced it would reopen the cafe for dine-in breakfast and lunch.
Cafe owner Yianni Passari said the cafe would operate with 1 hour dining limits in conjunction with the government mandated customer limit.
“Booking essential ad we will squeeze walk ins where we can... full details of every patron will be taken for records,” Mr Passari said.
Gambaro group director John Gambaro told The Courier-Mail the group would reopen its flagship seafood restaurant as well as Black Hide Steakhouse on Caxton St on Saturday, after months of takeaway only service.
Both restaurants will offer limited dinner sittings from Tuesdays to Saturdays and for lunch from Tuesdays to Fridays, with the official reopening this Saturday night.
Mr Gambaro said the group would continue its ‘Gambaro 2 go’ takeaway service with the 10-person limits not enough to cover opening expenses.
Still, the restaurateur said he was excited to embrace “an important chance to reconnect with the community,” Mr Gambaro said.
“I really hope as we prove to the community that we’re COVID safe, we’ll be able to increase our service.”
That ‘consumer confidence’ was the key to hospitality success in the wake of the coronavirus, according to Restaurants and Catering CEO Wes Lambert.
“The more confident the consumers feel that restaurant businesses are COVID safe, the more likely that they will come back and dine,” he said.
Mr Lambert said he welcomed the eased restrictions, which were a “return to regular business” for small and medium sized venues – approximately “93 per cent of the (restaurant) industry”.
He said Restaurants and Catering would offer coronavirus safety courses and information packages to ensure that both the public and the workers are accustomed and safe within the new rules.
However, Queensland Hotels Association CEO Bernie Hogan says the new rules have overlooked hotels and pubs, with the 10-person limit 'just not viable' in relation to the overheads associated with these venues.
Of the 940 QHA members, Mr Hogan said most “simply won’t open”, keeping workers “from the shifts they need”.
“It lacks practicality … they can’t afford to have it open for ten people; the cost of wages alone won’t make it profitable.”
“When you open your costs are at 100 per cent, you don’t turn on 10 per cent of your cold room or your power … It’s simply impossible to recoup those costs with the restrictions.”
La Cache a Vin, Tartufo and Madame Wu are among the Brisbane venues that will remain closed, with each restaurant claiming customer limits were not enough to justify opening.
Mr Hogan said he hoped revised restrictions would allow larger venues, such as hotels, “which have the space to support social distancing” to accommodate more customers.
Brisbane restaurants open for dine-in service this weekend (Bookings a must)
City Winery
Alchemy
Les Bubbles
Nota
La lune
Maeve Wine Bar
Donna Chang (Private Dining)
The Farmhouse Kedron
Milk Diner
The Gunshop cafe
The Golden Pig
85 Miskin St
Vaquero
C’Est Bon
Paw Paw cafe
Mons Thai
Tocco Italiano – Chelmer and Teneriffe
The Balfour kitchen
Proof BBQ and Booze
Gambaro’s seafood
Black hide steakhouse
Shunsai
Il Verde
Moda (private dining)
Hellbound
Electric Avenue
Canvas
Rogue Bistro (Private dining)
The Morning After
The Wolfe
Chu the Phat
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